Rare April Snowfall Heading For Parts Of BC & It Could Break A 14-Year Record In Vancouver

Metro Vancouver and Vancouver Island could see some rare April snow and, no, this isn't a belated April Fools' Day joke.

Weather forecasts suggest a cold front is coming in this weekend and into next week.

"If there is some precipitation, we could see some snow in the mountains or even the higher elevation neighbourhoods in Metro Vancouver," said Bobby Sekhon, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

He told Narcity that overnight temperatures are going to be "quite low, in the low single digits close to the freezing mark for the next several days through the weekend into the early part of next week."

The chilly temperatures will definitely be cold enough for snow, Sekhon said.

Luckily, he said that there is not a lot of precipitation expected this weekend.

The city isn't totally safe from the possibility of snow, though. Sekhon added that there might be precipitation next week, possibly on Tuesday night, which could see "a little bit of wet flurries [in] the higher elevations in Metro Vancouver."

Given that it's still a few days away, Sekhon said that it's difficult to tell how likely the snow is — or how close to sea level it will reach.

"We probably won't see a lot of accumulating snow," he added.

How rare is it?

As to how rare it would be if it did snow, Sekhon said that the last time there was "measurable snowfall" — at least 0.2 centimetres — at the Vancouver International Airport in April was on April 19, 2008.

He also said that this is the latest date that YVR has ever seen measurable snowfall.

Even if Vancouver doesn't see snow on the ground, the cooler weather trend probably won't be the spring you were hoping for.

Vancouver Island expected to be the hardest hit

The cold snap isn't just affecting the Lower Mainland either. Vancouver Island is also in for a surprise snowfall this weekend.

The average daily high temperature in Victoria — on Vancouver Island — during the month of April ranges from 11 to 14 degrees, and "rarely" falls below 9, according to Weather Spark.